Out of Emotional Ruts

Left to itself, the human emo­tional sys­tem will dimin­ish into a very few pre­dictable emo­tional pat­terns. Some­times they will con­tinue to dull into an end­less bore­dom. Chem­i­cal mood-management has become a multi-billion dol­lar legal and ille­gal enter­prise. It is by default. No one told us that we could change our moods by chang­ing our actions. You want to find a new feel­ing? Do some­thing novel.

I think Freud was wrong about humans being plea­sure seek­ing beings. We are more likely to pas­sively numb-out by rou­tine and the spir­i­tu­ally cow­ardly choice to live pre­dictably. By the approval of the state, we allow our­selves to drift into work­ing robots instead of find­ing our anger about the need to work too much for too lit­tle finan­cial reward. Worse yet, our reli­gious lives become encour­age­ments to go along with the mad­ness of it all — rather than call­ing all things into question.

You want to feel brave? Do some­thing dar­ing! You want to find love? Do some­thing lov­ing for some­one else! We feel what we do — not what we think. Feel­ings fol­low actions. Get out of town. Make a call. Do what­ever you have to do from a long-unused motive.

Repeat­ing the same day over and over is not liv­ing. Real life car­ries risk. Deep feel­ings require courage. Being fully alive means liv­ing on the edge. “Tak­ing up your cross” is not an invi­ta­tion to merge into a world of pseudo-security.

I have no idea what all I am doing today, but I know for sure I will say and do some things that I have never said or done before…and be totally alive for at least those moments.